Here’s what each had to say at length after the Sharks played an entertaining, but ultimately futile 60 minutes of hockey in a 4-3 loss to the Vancouver Canucks.

And we’ll start with Clowe:

‘They played back to back games and got 50 shots. That’s enough said there. we just want to cheat at times. That’s how it is. They’re not afraid to play a sound defensive game and they’ll stick to it. We’ve got guys who want to do it occasionally, but not all the time because that’s hard work.

“And when you work hard and you win, you feel it after a game. I guarantee you right now there’s guys that don’t feel that tired after that game. Just terrible. A first-place team in back to back games, tied going into the third.

“It was my fault on the last goal. He got underneath me, high stick or not. It’s things like that in the defensive zone. It’s unacceptable. I guess we can say we’re going to fix it, but when are we going to fix it?

“I think it’s just an individual thing, mentally. Do you want to score four goals or do you want to win a game? Are you happy losing with five goals, losing 6-5 maybe? Or would you rather have an LA game and win 1-0? Are guys happy? Maybe they want to score goals and get points. We’ve got to figure it out though. It’s frustrating. I’m pissed off. That’s for sure.”

And here’s what Todd McLellan had to say:

“I thought they (Vancouver) played very hard, they were very fast. We played three lines. The coach didn’t have enough confidence in some of the younger players so we went to three lines. They’re a very quick, very aggressive team. They won a lot of faceoffs in our zone which led to shots and rebounds and then they get to do it over again.

“I actually didn’t mind our game. I thought our game, after the first, got better. I thought we had our share of opportunities in the offensive zone. I thought Nemo played well for us.

“That’s the difference overall between the first place team in the league and a team trying to work real hard to get there.”

McLellan had talked before the game about narrowing the gap between the Sharks and the Canucks that was evident on Nov. 26 when Vancouver won 6-1.

“I think we did. It was a much better game on our behalf than what we had in Vancouver. The intensity was better and we won a lot more battles than we did there so the gap was closed a little bit, but we know now there’s some work to do still. We want to comepete with the best and get to that level. We still have some work to do.

On the winning goal by Alex Burrows:

“A real obvious high stick, but it’s unreviewable, that’s what I’m told. The initial play, the stick was well over the bar, the referee waived that off and he scored on the rebound.

On players being more upset:

“They just lost a game. They’re all high-end athletes. They’re competitive. They just lost a game they should be upset. I wouldn’t expect them to be any other way.”

*****It’s not often you get a split like that with the coach coming across as more forgiving than the players. But that was the case this time.

*****A look at the stat sheet shows just one Shark with more than a minus-1 and it’s Joe Thornton at minus-3. That same stat sheet, however, shows Thornton had two hits and one more takeaway (4) than giveaway (3), that he won 58 percent of his 19 faceoffs — most of anyone on the ice not named Manny Malhotra, who won 78 percent of his 18 faceoffs for the Canucks against his former team. (Yes, a closer look shows Alexandre Bolduc won four of six, but that’s not enough faceoffs to count .)

David Pollak

David Pollak has been following the NHL forever and at the Mercury News as an editor or reporter since 1987. For almost a decade he wrote about the Sharks as the paper's Fan in the Stands before joining the sports department in 2001. He became the Sharks beat writer before the 2007-08 season and began this blog at that time. You can also follow him on Twitter at @PollakOnSharks.